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A roaring fire, a homemade dinner, a perfect pint – and possibly an interesting history too!

And there’s certainly no shortage of them in our fair city. Right now, in hundreds of buildings all around the region, small communities of folks are coming together to talk, laugh, enjoy one another’s company and prove that the community spirit of days gone by is still alive and well.

“It’s a pleasure to come to work every day and see the same faces of our customers, many of whom have become friends,” said Andrew Grayson, who has been manager at the Noose & Gibbet on Broughton Lane for four years.

“We have a great crowd who turn out regularly – despite difficult economic times – for a chat or a game of darts, because this is a real home-from-home.

“There’s no such thing as a stanger in our pub – everybody’s a friend we haven’t met yet and we involve everybody in our conversations. The best part of my job is getting to hear all the fascinating stories of the different people that walk through the door.”

And dating back to 1870, The Noose & Gibbet is one of many Sheffield pubs with a spooky past.

“Of course it’s haunted,” laughs Andrew, as he recalls how the pub got its name – from Spence Broughton, a highwayman who was executed in 1792 for robbing the Sheffield and Rotherham mail. A fibreglass ‘Broughton’ hangs infront of the pub to this day in a gibbet cage – as the body of the man himself hung in Attercliffe Common for more than 36 years.

Andrew added: “We’ve had spooky happenings and ghost hunts, but that all just adds to the colourful history of a place like this.”

Sheffield’s oldest pub, The Old Queen’s Head, recently celebrated 500 years with a complete refurb, proving how important it is that we look after these historic landmarks in our city.

“It’s a fascinating building with a fascinating history and is named after Mary Queen of Scots who certainly would have known of the building during her years in Sheffield,” said owner Zuzana Barincova.

“It’s a building that is important to the people of Sheffield their history and I feel a responsibility to look after it for them.”